GOP getting the crap beaten out of it over its $100 gas rebate idea

This is priceless:

The Senate Republican plan to mail $100 checks to voters to ease the burden of high gasoline prices is eliciting more scorn than gratitude from the very people it was intended to help.

Aides for several Republican senators reported a surge of calls and e-mail messages from constituents ridiculing the rebate as a paltry and transparent effort to pander to voters before the midterm elections in November.

"The conservatives think it is socialist bunk, and the liberals think it is conservative trickery," said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, pointing out that the criticism was coming from across the ideological spectrum.

Angry constituents have asked, "Do you think we are prostitutes? Do you think you can buy us?" said another Republican senator's aide, who was granted anonymity to openly discuss the feedback because the senator had supported the plan.

Conservative talk radio hosts have been particularly vocal. "What kind of insult is this?" Rush Limbaugh asked on his radio program on Friday. "Instead of buying us off and treating us like we're a bunch of whores, just solve the problem." In commentary on Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume called the idea "silly."

Said the drug addict to the whore. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

So what's coming up this week? Read the rest of this post...

"Not It!" is not a way to run a government

As Joe notes below, Colin Powell today criticized George Bush, says Bush did not listen to Powell when the former Secretary of State said we needed more troops than Bush was planning for the invasion of Iraq.

How does our current Secretary of State, Condi Rice, respond?

"When it came down to it, the president listens to his military advisers who were to execute the plan."

So it was the generals' fault, not Bush's. Bush simply listened to those stupid generals at the Pentagon. They're the ones who told him to send too few troops. The general in specific would be the new-retired Tommy Franks who developed and executed the Iraq invasion. So Condi is saying that Franks screwed up. Love to see his thoughts on that.

Do you catch how it's never Bush's fault, even though he's the boss? Well, Powell cuts through that bull pretty quickly.

"The decisions that were made were not made by me or Mr. Cheney or Rumsfeld. They were made by the president of the United States," [Powell] said.

"And my responsibility was to tell him what I thought. And if others were going in at different times and telling him different things, it was his decision to decide whether he wanted to listen to that person or somebody else."

I think Powell is having a bit of fun with Bush's "I'm the decider" line. Powell flips it around on Bush and basically says, sure Bush got some advice from me, and other advice from Rummy and Cheney and Tommy Franks. But in the end, Bush is the president, he's the decider, and he's the one responsible for being smart enough to choose the best advice from the varied counsel he's given.

And what happened? Bush wasn't smart enough. That's was Colin Powell said today.

Still think Larry Wilkerson is acting without Powell's okay? Read the rest of this post...

"Double or Nothing" is not a foreign policy

Excellent analysis of the Iran situation from Josh Marshall.

With respect to what's coming on Iran, what is in order is a little honesty, just as was the case with the Social Security debate a year ago. The only crisis with Iran is the crisis with the president's public approval ratings. Period. End of story. The Iranians are years, probably as long as a decade away, and possibly even longer from creating even a limited yield nuclear weapon. Ergo, the only reason to ramp up a confrontation now is to help the president's poll numbers....

It turns on how far a desperate president will go to avoid losing control of Congress.

Go to his heart. Go to his weaknesses. Though the realization of the fact is something of a lagging indicator, the man is a laughing stock, whose lies and failures are all catching up with him.

To the president the Democrats should be saying, Double or Nothing is Not a Foreign Policy.

The great bulk of the public doesn't believe this president any more when he tries to gin up a phony crisis. They don't believe he'd have much of an idea of how to deal with a real one. Enough of the lies. Enough of the incompetence and failure.

No buying into another of the president's phony crises.

Read the rest of this post...

It's Condi v. Colin

Well, Powell's comments today about Iraq had one positive outcome. He threw Condi off her game:

Just back from Baghdad and eager to discuss promising developments, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice found herself knocked off message Sunday, forced to defend prewar planning and troop levels against an unlikely critic - Colin Powell, her predecessor at the State Department.

For the Bush administration, it was a rare instance of in-house dissenter going public.

On Rice's mind was the political breakthrough that had brought her and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to Iraq last week and cleared the way for formation of a national unity government.

Yet Powell sideswiped her by revisiting the question of whether the U.S. had a large enough force to oust Saddam Hussein and then secure the peace.

Powell's gone. But the rest of the crowd who screwed up Iraq -- Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Condi -- are still around. Now, they're making plans for Iran. It will be very helpful for our country if people on the inside who know better speak out earlier this time instead of waiting three years. Read the rest of this post...

Blair sagging in UK polls

UK voters are getting fed up with Blair and his government. I'm not sure where they can go though because it's not like the Conservatives were against the war and even though they are trying to soften their image with pro-green images, I would not count on them being much better. Maybe everyone will get lucky and Blair will be sent out to pasture sooner than later.

• 64 percent of those surveyed saying he [Blair] was doing badly.
  
• 57 percent of respondents said Blair's government was "sleazy and incompetent."

Read the rest of this post...

Another former general -- Colin Powell -- criticizes Rumsfeld (and Bush)

Criticism of Rumsfeld and his boss, George Bush, from Powell during an interview on British television courtesy of Think Progress. Iraq was a disaster from the beginning -- and Powell was complicit. If he thought there weren't enough troops, why didn't he speak out then? Powell had the moral authority to stop the madness. He didn't. Read the rest of this post...

Another gorgeous day in DC

Off to do a Politics TV taping. Read the rest of this post...

VIDEO: Colbert ripping Bush at dinner

Crooks & Liars has the video, it's good. Read the rest of this post...

Bush cracks himself up -- but he's still the President

Funny stuff from the Prez:

"Ladies and gentlemen, I feel chipper tonight. I survived the White House shake-up," the president said.

Ha Ha. Unfortunately, it's not a joke. The White House can do all the "shake-ups" they want -- they know the press eats it up and spends endless hours discussing what it means. It means nothing. Bush is still the President. Cheney is still the Vice President. Iraq is still a quagmire. Their policies still are destroying America.

It's also more than a little ironic that Bush and the media were yukking it up last night just when we learn that Bush wants to prosecute reporters as spies. Read the rest of this post...

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Condi's making the rounds -- again -- because we're on the "March to Victory," by the way. And the White House Network is hosting two top staffers, Bolten and Snow. They're not even subtle.

Here's the line-up via the Wash. Post:

FOX NEWS SUNDAY.... White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and incoming White House press secretary Tony Snow .

THIS WEEK...: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice , Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), actor George Clooney and former senator J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.).

FACE THE NATION...: Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Rice .

MEET THE PRESS...: Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman , Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), American Petroleum Institute President Red Cavaney , TheStreet.com co-founder Jim Cramer and author Daniel Yergin .

LATE EDITION (CNN), 11 a.m.: Sens. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), former CIA director R. James Woolsey , former Israeli intelligence director Efraim Halevy and Rice

Read the rest of this post...

Is the US a nation of laws or just a banana republic?

Seems like Bush prefers to pick and choose in his little kingdom. Congressional lapdogs have gone along with it, always eager to please their master. This is why the Democrats must take back Congress in the fall because Bush needs to held accountable and balance needs to be restored.

President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.

Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ''whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.

Read on... Read the rest of this post...

Stephen Colbert rips Bush at Correspondent's Dinner - Bush NOT amused

Oh. My. God. Read the rest of this post...